Chris Christie’s nearly two-hour apologia last week may not have won him much sympathy from American commentators — the investigations into the bridge lane closure arranged by his staff to punish an unsupportive mayor have only just begun — but north of the border pundits were falling over themselves to praise the New Jersey governor for his forthrightness.

Though the cases are not identical, there’s more than a passing similarity between the Senate scandal that engulfed the Prime Minister’s office for much of last year, and revelations of dirty tricks in the office of New Jersey’s governor, who is believed to be planning a run for the Republican presidential nomination.

I can only attribute this comparatively favourable response to how debased our standards have become. Yes, the governor presented himself before the press, answered (almost) every question, and — apparently the clincher — apologized. But if it was a departure from the months of stonewalling and hiding out from the press that have become the norm here, it was still a fairly typical political apology.

It was all there: the repeated declarations that he “took responsibility” without in fact taking any; the expressions of contrition that made it clear he had nothing to be contrite about; the evocations of what a toll the whole affair had taken on him emotionally; and the almost instantaneous conversion of what ought reasonably to have been a moment for humility and introspection into yet another occasion to list off his many wonderful qualities. Change a few words here and there, and you could have been listening to the prime minister’s year-end interviews.

Indeed, the explanation both have offered is remarkably similar: My closest advisors and confidants conceived and carried out an ethically abhorrent plan, for my benefit but without my knowledge, then lied to me about it for months. Even supposing we take these at face value, it is hardly “taking responsibility” to blame it all on your staff, nor is it especially difficult to say you are “sorry” for other people’s mistakes. They are simply words politicians have been taught to say: They test well with focus groups, almost as well as “I’m not a focus-group tested politician.”

What would a leader who was genuinely interested in taking responsibility say in this situation? Again, let’s accept the “I didn’t know anything” story as true. To a leader who understood his responsibilities, this would be, if not irrelevant, certainly not the whole story. He would not himself offer it as an excuse; were it offered to him, he would wave it away.

“Whatever I knew or did not know,” he might say, “I hired these people, and more than that, I led them. A leader in any organization is responsible for setting the culture of that organization: the values, the standards, the expectations, the rewards and penalties. Indeed, that’s pretty much the job. The leader sets the tone — what he insists on, what he won’t tolerate — and those around him pass it on down the line, until it is transmitted, for good or ill, through the whole organization.”

“It would be one thing if someone somewhere in my employ had done something out of line, in a matter unrelated to his job. But when a number of senior officials, people I appointed, are involved in the same misconduct — and in the course of the very duties for which I hired them — then my responsibility is real. It is not discharged by firing those involved, but implicates me directly.

“Either I have failed to transmit to them the values I expect them to uphold, or worse, I have given them the wrong values. Politics is a competitive business, but so are many others. It is the leader’s responsibility, not only to instill in his people a competitive spirit and a desire to win, but also a sense of the ethical boundaries they must not cross in this endeavour.”

He would conclude: “That did not happen here, and that is my fault.” At the very least, he would set out the steps he was taking to correct this failure — his failure. If the matter were serious enough, he would resign. That is what “taking responsibility” looks like. That is what it means.

That may sound odd, or naive. We have been taught not to expect that from our leaders. The measure by which we assess them now is their own expedience — “what they need to do” or “what they should say,” by which we mean not what is true or right but what might work.

But these are not simply crises to be managed. They go to the heart of each man’s claims to leadership. It is pointless to offer advice on how they should “handle” the issue, because they are the issue.

And yet it is no good simply admonishing them to behave better, because if they were capable of behaving better they wouldn’t have behaved as they have, and because if they had behaved better they more than likely wouldn’t have reached the positions of power they are now in. In politics, nice guys really do finish last.

This isn’t about the personal failings of a couple of leaders, in other words, any more than it is about the actions of a few rogue staffers. We have seen it too often; it is too systemic. It is about the culture of politics — the values, the standards, the expectations, the rewards and penalties. And it will not change until we change that culture. Which is to say: If we want leaders who take responsibility, we have to accept our own.

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